Summary: Military installations usually support themselves independently with various services similar to those provided by local governments, utility companies, and the service industry segment of the civilian economy. The Department of Defense (DOD) has attempted to achieve significant savings through the consolidation of these base operating support services, and GAO examined impediments to achieving these consolidations and the specific actions that are needed to realize the potential savings. In an effort to reduce base support costs, DOD established the: (1) Defense Retail Interservicing Support program to promote interservice consolidations; (2) military services' intraservice programs to consolidate support activities within each service; and (3) Commercial and Industrial-Type Activities program to contract for support services which can be provided more economically by private industry. However, the success of these programs has been limited by such factors as a lack of DOD commitment to them, the low visibility of successes in certain locations, a lack of meaningful goals, and the failure to effectively coordinate the three programs. If DOD is to realize the benefits of consolidation, it must: (1) establish meaningful cost-saving goals and reduce the base operating support budgets of those military services which do not achieve their goals; (2) no longer allow the services' parochial interests to frustrate consolidation and establish procedures for the timely settlement of consolidation disputes; (3) take the initiative to direct defensewide consolidations once they have been proven cost effective in several geographic locations; and (4) place the authority and resources necessary to effectively coordinate the three programs so that the maximum benefit is received from each program. DOD should also consider creating a management structure which centralizes responsibility for base support services. This structure would provide an effective means of coordinating competing programs, obtaining visibility over total base support resources, deciding consolidation disputes, and establishing overall requirements for base support services and the most effective means of obtaining them.
